SAD delegation meets gurdwara election commission, seeks review of voters’ list for SGPC polls

A delegation of Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Thursday met gurdwara elections chief commissioner justice (retd) SS Saron, requesting him to extend the process for registration of voters for the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) elections to March 31 to weed out all the ‘bogus votes’.

The delegation included the party’s working president Balwinder Singh Bhundar, former president Sukhbir Singh Badal and SGPC president Harjinder Singh Dhami.

Presenting a memorandum to the chief commissioner, Sukhbir alleged that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government had directed booth-level officers to register votes en masse from the voters list due to which thousands of non-Sikhs had been given the voting right for the SGPC elections.

“Genuine voters have been deleted while bogus votes were being added as part of the conspiracy to take over control of the SGPC by hook or by crook,” Sukhbir said, urging the chief commissioner to issue directions for the review of all the voter lists.

Sukhbir also appealed for extending the time period for making new votes saying a large number of eligible voters had still been left out of the election process and the voters list has not been updated in Himachal Pradesh.

Later briefing mediapersons, party spokesperson Daljit Singh Cheema said that thousands of non-Sikhs have been given the voting right.

“The delegation also apprised the chief commissioner about the Sikh rehat maryada under which it was compulsory to suffix Singh or Kaur with names. We have submitted voter lists to the commission in which the names of voters are in contravention to the Sikh rehat maryada,” he added.

Despite repeated attempts, the gurdwara elections chief commissioner couldn’t be contacted for comments.